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Entries from February 2013

If your Wisteria plant is forming flower buds but they are not opening it most likely to be a nutrient problem i.e a lack of magnesium so try feeding your wisteria in early spring with some liquid tomato feed and also some epson salts 4 teaspoons to a gallon of water. Both these items contain […]

Couch grass or twitch grass (Elymus repens) Best treated with a weedkiller called Round Up once or twice in the spring you need to leave the area before digging over 6 weeks for the Round Up to work its way back into the roots of the Couch grass. Also apply on a mild sunny day […]

Christmas Cactus or Schlumbergera Normally start flowering in December and go on to the early spring. They can start in October if its was a plant purchased from a garden centre which has been forced into flower. Or the light conditions as in recent years in the autumn have been all over the place triggered […]

1. if you are considering installing a drainage scheme in your garden the first item to address is how you remove the water from the garden. Its a point not many people consider or they figure they can get away by installing a soak away. A soak away is OK were the soil or sub […]

Often in heavy snow falls one of the first plants that’s damaged is ceanothus, the structure of a ceanothus with regards to the stems and branches makes it easy for the snow to build up quickly and weigh the plant down often with the plant bending over. Normally this damage happens in the late winter […]

If you have a wet clay soil although its great for growing certain types of plants such as fast growing perennial plant such as Gunnera its not so good for a number of more delicate plants. One solution we often use is to create raised beds by adding grit sand and spent mushroom compost. Simply […]

Yellowing cherry laurel leaves on newly planted plants on last seasons growth tends to indicate that the plant has suffered a shock or being checked during the transplanting or planting. It could also be the shock of winter winds so in this case in the spring we recommend feeding all the plants now with a […]

Garlic seeds or bulbletts can be sown in pots to get them going and then you can plant them out later. Also when planting them in pots use a soil based potting compost such as John Iness seed compost. This is available from most garden centres. Using this type of compost tend to help when […]

Normally a large percentage of the seed from Aesculus x carnea ‘Briotii’ the red flowered chestnut is produced sterile and so the plants are normally propogated by grafting. However any of the conkers that do gernimate should come ture to type or variety – Its work remembering that before the seed or conkers will germinate […]

Creating a hanging vegetable garden, yes it should be possible we have helped a lot of people in the UK do this due to people living in flats and wanting to grow veg in a limited space. Normally we help them design a vertical hanging garden. So if you would like yo email us a […]

non flowering snow drops the most common reason is that they were cut back to soon after flowering last year. Each year after flowering the bulbs grow the flower for the next season inside the existing bulb so if they are cut back to soon after flowering they do not have time to do this.To […]

Plants to cover a north facing shed have a look at Pyrcantha orange glow and Garrya elliptica both are evergreen and have interest in the winter the Pyrcantha with berries and the Garrya With catkins. They also are free standing needing just a few wires for support and training when first planted. Both are also […]

Forsythia plants are one of those plants that benefit from hard pruning every few years. It keeps the stems freash and help to produce lots of new wood to carry more flowers in the second year of growth. Your Pruning program for pruning Forsythia should be to after its flowered in the spring remove the […]

Suitable hedge to slow run away cars. We suggest using yew as a suitable hedge to slow run away cars. Ideally using yew planted three to the metre. Also you could build a fence in the hedge of steel tubing such as scaffolding tubing which the hedge would grow around and add additional support and […]

you can plant a number of plants in your garden that will help to control aphids and other harmful insects in your garden in a type of companion planting. Examples of these plants are as follows. Marigolds, Tagetes, Calendula and Pyrethrum. All can be grow by sowing directly into the soil in the spring in […]

Garden pond waterfall Planting. The plants that can be used largely depend on if the waterfall is is shade or in a sunny position for example plants that do well in sun near a waterfall are small Japanese acers and plants for a shady area could be ferns, primulas and hostas. Both plants would benefit […]

If you are into wildflower meadows clover in your lawn might be a very welcome sign as it has some fantastic flowers and attracts loads of bees and other insects. However if you are aiming for that quintessential English lawn look with the strips just as you see at Wimbledon ever year. Then the appearance […]

The best time to use lawn weedkiller is in May, when plants are growing at their fastest rate, particularly if you are using Verdone or a dry phosphate. All plants have a chemical growth clock which will stop them from outgrowing themselves. Verdone, for example, contains 2-4-D, which alters the growth clock so that the […]

Brown buds on your camellia that are more on the outside of the plant and not the centre of the plant are often caused by exposure to cold frosty and windy weather in the winter that’s causing as the buds form or start to open. It sounds as though the plant it growing in a […]

Moving a Yucca plant, this is best done from the end of November until the end of March, after this period the plant will have a problem developing new feeding roots to access soil moisture, in any event you will need to water it well in the spring and summer after the move. With regards […]